Stories

Roberta’s mom had a sore throat that was worse than a normal one and so she went to see her regular physician. He immediately sent her to a throat specialist. The verdict was quickly pronounced that this was not just a sore throat. She would need surgery, right away. Further, there was the possibility, even with the surgery, that she would lose the ability to speak. He wanted her to come back the very next day.

Upon leaving the specialist’s office, she headed straight to church, St. Rose of Lima, in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. The priest there, Fr. Harrity, blessed her throat, but also told her that, when she attended Mass the next morning, she should offer her reception of the Eucharist for this difficulty.

She did and then proceeded to the specialist. He once again looked into her throat but, in astonishment, proclaimed, “My God, you are healed.” He had seen convincing evidence of disease in her throat only one day before. Now, it was gone.

In the interval, she had received a blessing from a priest, but also, as he thought was very important, she had received the Eucharist.

Viversel is a hamlet and the oldest parish in the district of Zolder, in the present Belgian municipality of Heusden-Zolder. It was there, on July 25, 1317, that the pastor of the local church was called to the bedside of one his parishioners. The man was seriously ill and the priest had been summoned to hear the man’s confession, distribute Holy Viaticum and prepare the man for death in a state of grace.

Upon arriving at the man’s home, the priest left the bad he had been carrying at the entrance. He then went in further to the man’s bedside, to hear his confession. The bag was not simply any bag, for it carried a pyx containing the Blessed Sacrament.While the priest was attending to the sick man, a member of his family, who reportedly was in a state of mortal sin, took the bag, opened the pyx and put his hand inside. Discovering the Host, he put everything back the way it was, to hopefully keep his intrusion secret.

The priest then returned and discovered that the Host, which he recognized as one he himself had consecrated at Mass, was stained with blood which caused it to stick to the linen cloth covering the bottom of the pyx.

The priest was understandably troubled and, unsure of what should properly be done, make an excuse of having forgotten something, rushed out of the house. He consulted the pastor if the church in nearby Lumen, who advised him to take the Host to the Benedictine monastery in Herkenrode. The priest left and, as he reported it, extraordinary things took place along the road.

At the monastery, he displayed the Host to everybody there. Numerous witnesses saw, and later attested to having seen in the Host, the face of Christ crowned with thorns.

In this place, called Sacramentsberg, a chapel was built as a perpetual memorial. From that time on, “the Blessed Sacrament of the Miracle,” which had been placed in a reliquary and exposed to public veneration, more than once protected the monastery of Herkenrode from fire. The reliquary of the miracle was kept at the Abbey until 1796, and in 1804, it was transferred to the Church of St. Quintinus in Hasselt, where it can still be seen to this day.

As has been documented on this webpage before, a piece of bread or article made of wheat flour will seriously begin to decompose within six months. Here, some 700 years later, that has still not taken place although the Host has not been treated with any chemical preservative.

Sister Briege McKenna was attending a Mass in a Latin American country. The people were poor. The Mass was being said outside, with an old table being used for the altar.

At the beginning of the Mass, Sister McKenna noticed a little boy. He had a “terrible facial deformity.”

At the end of Mass, the child’s mother came running up to Sister McKenna, with the boy in her arms. She wanted Sister McKenna to look at her boy. Sister McKenna did. The facial deformity was that had been there only a short time ago was now gone.

In the meantime, the Mass, the great celebration of the coming and the presence of the Lord among His people, had taken place. He had come. The boy was changed. The mother was ecstatic.

It is reported that saints and mystics have had the ability to perceive the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and likewise, the ability to perceive when He is not present.

Once, a priest thought to test St. Lidwina of Holland in this regard. He attempted to give her an unconsecrated host, but she said to him, “Your Reverence will please to give me another host, for that which you hold in your hand is not Jesus Christ.”

The priest had obviously not told her ahead of time of his modest deception. This story was remembered and recorded precisely because of this fact and that, nonetheless, the Saint knew Jesus was not present in the Blessed Sacrament — an ability she had only because she had the ability to know, at other times, He was.

While in the Air Force during the early 1950s, Helen made it a practice of going to daily Mass. In military service, however, opportunities to succumb to temptation and worldly pleasures were abundant. She began to regret how she was acting and to see that it was wrong.

Then she was discharged and returned home. One morning, she was at Mass, at the parish church of her childhood. She was upset at the offense she had caused Jesus and vowed that she would remain loyal to Him in the future.

She went forward to receive Communion. As she stood in front of the priest, she “saw Jesus standing there with His precious body and blood, offering them to me.” She understood that her past sins were forgiven and she was back in His graces again. The relief for her was overwhelming.

She wrote of this event in 2004. 50 years later, it still remained fresh in her mind. During Communion, her thoughts still would return to that singular moment that made such an indelible impression on her.

St. Catherine Fieschi of Genoa died in 1510. For the last 23 years of her life, she celebrated Advent, as well as Lent, in a rather unique way. She did not eat. She did not drink. She lived only on the Blessed Sacrament.

Once her confessor ordered her to eat. She obeyed, but her body rejected the food and she became very ill.

Normally, a person can only survive 7-10 days without any food or water. She did it for these four and six-week periods for 23 years in a row, with the solitary sustenance she obtained through the Eucharist.

Not too many years ago, a woman from Minnesota sent a letter to the Catholic author Michael Brown. In it, she recounted an experience at Mass:

“I looked up and all of a sudden I could see with my physical eyes a multitude of adoration angels, suspended in a devout posture, encircling the altar, adoring the Eucharist – Jesus. Their presence enhanced the devotion to God within my own heart. At the very moment of Consecration, several angels were lying prostrate at the foot of the altar. I noticed every single adoration angel positioned lower than the Eucharistic Host as Father held it up for all to praise and take notice of. Many were dressed in light, translucent gowns of heavenly colors shown in pinks, aqua, yellow, blue, and green, bathed in light. I was given the knowledge that these are adoration angels and their place before God is to adore the Eucharistic Jesus during Mass and they are always present during Consecration.”

Brother John of Alvema was a disciple of St. Francis of Assisi. It was said that he saw angels at Mass, angels that have been seen by other saints and mystics and are reportedly present at every Mass.

Once during Mass, at the time of consecration, the Host vanished from his sight and he instead saw Christ Himself. He collapsed in this ecstasy and was carried into the sacristy, enrapt and motionless.

Is one to believe such unseen happenings transpire only at certain Masses? If not, then the very same will be the case at the next Mass we attend.

Lewiston, N.Y. lies about 12 miles north of Niagara Falls. Located in that town is the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. Several hours each day there, the Holy Eucharist is exposed for adoration in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

One particular day, a physician accompanied a woman into this chapel. The physician reported that, while there, a Host materialized in the hands of that woman. A Host had not been there before, then was.

Marie-Therese Noblet was born in 1889 and lived near Rheims in France. In August, 1904, at the age of 14, she was diagnosed with Pott’s disease, a form of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is an infectious bacterial disease that is characterized by the growth of nodules in an affected area of the body. Pott’s disease involves tuberculosis of the spine, and can lead to the collapse of spinal discs, deformity and paraplegia.

Only one year after her diagnosis with this disease, Marie-Therese suffered from pain, deformity and paralysis on her left side. It was in this condition that she travelled to Lourdes, France in August of 1905. She attended the Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, where the sick commonly gather to perhaps receive the grace of healing from the Real Presence there before them. Leaving that area, she headed toward the Hospital of Our Lady of Sorrows but discovered, upon entering, that she no longer was in need of medical care. She had been cured spontaneously.

The next morning, she presented herself to the Office of the Medical Statements of Fact (a Commission charged with the authentication of cures at Lourdes) to demonstrate her healed state. For a year after this, her family doctor monitored her condition. Three years later, Cardinal Lucon, Archbishop of Rheims appointed a commission to examine her again. After receiving their report, the Cardinal declared her cure was miraculous.

A brief encounter with the One present in the Eucharist was enough to change the life of this young lady.